A series of explosions killed at least 18 people and wounded dozens Sunday as Iraq's relentless violence remained unabated despite an appeal from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for an end to sectarian fighting.A bomb planted in a minivan used as a public bus detonated near the pedestrian entry point to the Palestine Hotel in downtown Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding 18, police and witnesses said.Another car bomb exploded in the parking lot of the government-run al-Sabah newspaper in a Sunni-dominated area of the capital, killing at least three people and wounding 30. At least 25 cars also caught fire in the blast, and the newspaper building was badly damaged.State-run TV reported that al-Maliki called the newspaper director to ask about the attack.A bomb also exploded in the town of al-Khalis, on the outskirts of Baqouba just north of Baghdad... http://www.usatoday.com

Forty-nine of the 50 people aboard Delta Flight 5191 were killed when the aircraft crashed Sunday morning shortly after take-off from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, according to Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn.Ginn said he believes most people died from fire-related causes "rather than smoke inhalation."A Blue Grass Airport official said rescuers were able to extricate a crew member -- the lone survivor -- identified as first officer James M. Polehinke, who has worked with the carrier since 2002.The Delta Air Lines commuter flight was en route from Blue Grass Airport to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown told CNN.The cause of the crash is unknown and is under investigation. There were no reports of bad weather in the Lexington area. "It was dark at the time of the accident, but it was clear," Brown said....http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/27/plane.crash/index.html?section=cnn_us

Israeli aircraft fired two missiles early Sunday at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said.The Israeli army said it did not realize the car's passengers were journalists and only attacked because the vehicle was driving in a suspicious manner near Israeli troops in the middle of a combat zone.A Hamas militant was killed in a separate airstrike, hospital officials said.The airstrike on the journalists' car came as Israeli soldiers backed by two dozen tanks, two bulldozers, helicopters and drone planes moved into an area just inside the Gaza Strip near the Karni crossing, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said....http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-08-26-media-airstrike_x.htm?csp=34

Just before nightfall, Yezong Zumu seeks the charity of the caterpillar fungus diggers, whose mountain shacks offer respite from the bitter winds that slice across the stony Himalayan plain, 4,000 metres above sea level. A roof is all she needs until dawn, when she sets off again, chanting scriptures, fingering her prayer beads and slowly trekking around the sacred mountain, Xiannairi.For almost all of her 67 years, it has been thus for this Buddhist - living close to nature, close to the spiritual and precariously close to starvation. It is not unusual in this southern corner of Sichuan province, where - such is the sense of the mystic, the beautiful landscape and the remoteness of the location - local people believe that they live in a real-life Shangri-la despite enduring the most wretched poverty....http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1859248,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

The Pentagon on Saturday said it transferred five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, leaving about 445 detainees at the naval base in Cuba. "These detainees were all recommended for transfer due to multiple review processes conducted at Guantanamo Bay," the Pentagon said in a statement posted on its Web site on Saturday. The Pentagon did not disclose the names of the prisoners being transferred to Afghanistan or disclose any further details. About 120 of the remaining 445 detainees may be eligible for transfer or release pending a series of reviews, the statement said. "Departure of these remaining detainees approved for transfer or release is subject to ongoing discussions between the United States and other nations," the statement said. In late June, 14 Saudi Arabian nationals were sent home, two weeks after three suicides at the facility thrust U.S. handling of terrorism suspects back into the spotlight...http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060827/ts_nm/security_guantanamo_afghan_dc

Lebanon's information minister on Saturday criticized the arrest of a businessman in New York on charges of providing satellite broadcasts of Hezbollah's Al-Manar television to New York-area customers. Javed Iqbal, a 24-year-old businessman originally from Pakistan, was arrested Wednesday in New York on conspiracy charges of enabling broadcasts of Al-Manar designated by the U.S. government as a global terrorist entity. "As a Lebanese citizen first, and as an official in the Lebanese government and information minister of Lebanon, I find this to be unacceptable," Ghazi Aridi told reporters in Beirut. U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said Iqbal used satellite dishes at his Staten Island home to distribute the broadcasts through a Brooklyn company called HDTV Limited. Al-Manar features news programming that promotes Hezbollah, which is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations. Its headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut were repeatedly bombed...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2360948